Having a fully fledged market building is a long awaited dream of Aldonkars but it’s been years now, that the dream remains unfulfilled.
The Aldona market building was declared unsafe in 2014 when a group of students of Goa Engineering College had conducted study of the building & in their report the building was declared unsound and not safe for the people.
Constructed in 1971, almost 46 years old this building is in a very bad condition that it might collapse at any point of time. The roof has cracks and chunks of the ceiling are peeling off and are falling.
This has been happening for a few years now. The plaster from the walls & poles has been ripped out exposing the iron rods.
The cracks and the peeled off plaster results in water leakage during the rains make it difficult to walk or vendors to sit inside the building. Also, there are around thirty shops but there is no gate for the building which is a security concern.
The two-storey building has around thirty shops in and outside the building. Also the fish vendors and vegetable vendors carry their business under the same roof. There is no separate place for the fish vendors and vegetable vendors and that is the reason why they keep their utensils on the floor after their business for the day. There is no cold storage or proper sitting arrangement for the fish sellers.
Moreover, there is no proper place to throw the waste water and garbage due to which the fish vendors throw the wastewater just outside the building.
The market building also does not have toilet facility which adds to the unhygienic situation of the market.
Sources said that the land on which the existing market is located is partially owned by comunidade, partially by panchayat and partially by shop owners due to which it’s taking time for them to come up with the final decision of going ahead with their plans of a new market complex.
After receiving the report that the building is unsafe, the panchayat had issued letters to all thirty shop owners to vacate their shops immediately for the demolition and construction of new building. The shop owners retaliated by asking why should their livelihoods be affected for no fault of theirs, and demanded compensation
Lutin Alemo, a shop owner says, “We also asked the panchayat to show us the project plan but they did not have it. And then for one and a half years, there has been no movement on this.”
“If we had vacated the shop immediately then, we would have been on streets now”, said another shop owner Ghansyam Palni. He wondered why shopkeepers were not moved to the new land acquired for the purpose.”
The owner of Sadanand Tailors, in the Aldona market said that the MLA Glenn Ticlo has promised to solve the issue and even discuss with Chief Minister Parrikar, but there appears to be no movement on this.
When contacted Aldona Sarpanch Gajanand Haldankar, he said “All stakeholders are now meeting on June 30. Hopefully some solutions will emerge then”.
After years of neglect, these words hardly give any assurance.
